A rare Apple-1 computer built by Steve Wozniak in 1976 has sold for $471,000 in a Christie’s auction.
According to the Apple-1 Registry of known Apple-1 computers, this is number 10 of just 68 thought to be still in existence. Only 200 Apple-1 computers were ever made.
Want to own one of the very first computers Apple ever launched? You very well could, thanks to a Christie’s auction selling an Apple-1 personal computer, circa 1976.
This model comes complete with original instruction manuals, supporting hardware, and “additional ephemera.” However, with an asking price of up to $630,000, you may have to get a second mortgage or sell a vital organ to get hold of it!
April 11, 1976: Apple releases its first computer, the Apple-1.
Designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak, the computers are sold wholesale by “Steven” Jobs. To finance their manufacturing, Wozniak sells his HP-65 calculator for $500, while Jobs sells his VW van. Years later, in 2014, a working Apple-1 will sell at auction for $905,000.
March 3, 1975: The Homebrew Computer Club, a hobbyist group that helps spark the personal computing revolution, holds it first meeting in Menlo Park, California.
It becomes a welcome forum for computer geeks at a time when few others cared. And regular attendee Steve Wozniak and his friend Steve Jobs will eventually show off the first Apple-1 unit at the club.
December 8, 1975: San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur Paul Terrell opens The Byte Shop, one of the world’s first computer stores and the first to sell an Apple computer.
Years before Apple would open its own retail outlets, the Byte Shop stocks the first 50 Apple-1 computers built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
A vintage handwritten spec sheet in which Steve Jobs called the Apple-1 motherboard a “great deal” has failed to sell at auction.
The document, written in the mid-1970s, was up for auction as part of Bonham’s “History of Science and Technology, Including Space History” collection. Its asking price was $60,000. However, the bidding “only” reached up to $28,000, thereby failing to meet its reserve. A couple of historical Apple items did sell, but for less than expected.
A rare working Apple-1 computer, one of just 200 built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, has sold at auction for $375,000.
The computer is thought to be just one of only around 15 Apple-1 models still in working order. The auction took place in Boston, MA, on Tuesday. The buyer was an “anonymous businessman,” who placed his bid online.
August 25, 2016: An ultra-rare Apple-1 computer raises $815,000 in a charity auction, one of the highest prices ever paid for one of the machines. Bidding actually reaches $1.2 million in the auction’s final minutes. However, that bid gets pulled seconds before a winner is announced.
The reason for the super-high price? This “Celebration” Apple-1 boasts a feature that did not appear on any production models of the computer.
You can buy a piece of Apple history next month. An Apple-1 computer built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak will be auctioned off.
But bring your credit card. The auction house expects it to go for about $300,000.
If you want to check out Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak’s first ever product, book your travel to Michigan now!
That’s because The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn has acquired a rare 1972 Blue Box in an auction in New York City, and will be displaying it soon. The illicit device, which pre-dates the Apple-1 by four years, allowed users to make free long-distance phone calls by reproducing specific dial tones.
